Redsox

I went to a baseball game today, the first game in almost 2 years.  I even tried to take photos.  I suppose I would judge my work as semi-publishable.  By that I mean that if there was nothing better, these might be published if the paper had to.  Thinking back to my newspaper days, these would be almost insurance shots.  You know, you are at a game, not much is happening, and you have to have something so you shoot whatever moves.

I was shocked at how out of practice I am--I lost the ball, couldn't even point the camera sometimes, and pressed the shutter late.  Often.  I have lots of pictures of guys already standing up, brushing themselves off, and having a Coke--I thought I was getting them when they were sliding into second!  Part of this I will blame on equipment.  Amateur D-SLRs are fantastic, but they still have a lag time between when you press the shutter and when they take a photo.  Seriously, if you wonder why there are still cameras that cost $6,000, that is one of the main reasons.  That, and better motor drives.  

I would have to say that there may be a difference in motivation for me as well.  When I depended on this for my paycheck and was on deadline, I took this pretty seriously.  Honestly I know I missed two fantastic plays and photographs that would have been far better than these.  On one of them, I was eating a crab roll, and said/thought, wow, that was a great play at third.  The other time I missed a collision at second that also would have made a great photo.  I was buying a beer at the time, and the beer guy was in my way.  That probably wouldn't have happened "back in the day."